Sunbelt Securities Inc. Grows Holdings in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Sunbelt Securities Inc. increased its stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 108.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,187 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after buying an additional 3,215 shares during the period. Sunbelt Securities Inc.’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $180,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Halliburton by 17,317.6% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 13,631,188 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $460,462,000 after purchasing an additional 13,552,927 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management raised its stake in Halliburton by 24,954.1% during the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,730,900 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $92,250,000 after buying an additional 2,720,000 shares in the last quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC bought a new position in Halliburton during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $55,132,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Halliburton by 20.0% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,087,115 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $340,752,000 after acquiring an additional 1,681,620 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 22.0% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 5,520,383 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $160,367,000 after acquiring an additional 995,649 shares during the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Halliburton from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Halliburton from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Halliburton from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Dbs Bank began coverage on Halliburton in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $45.00 target price for the company. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $40.58.

Halliburton Stock Down 0.7 %

Halliburton stock opened at $28.68 on Friday. Halliburton has a 52 week low of $27.26 and a 52 week high of $41.56. The stock has a market cap of $25.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.99, a PEG ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 1.90. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $29.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.31. The company has a current ratio of 2.21, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $5.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.83 billion. Halliburton had a net margin of 11.04% and a return on equity of 28.33%. Halliburton’s revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.79 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Halliburton will post 3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.37%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.69%.

Halliburton Profile

Halliburton Company provides products and services to the energy industry worldwide. It operates through two segments, Completion and Production, and Drilling and Evaluation. The Completion and Production segment offers production enhancement services that include stimulation and sand control services; cementing services, such as well bonding and casing, and casing equipment; and completion tools that offer downhole solutions and services, including well completion products and services, intelligent well completions, and service tools, as well as liner hanger, sand control, and multilateral systems.